Week 7: 3 Mosts

My most hair-raising moment in vr was when I first started playing superhot and someone (in the game) approached me from behind. Because it was virtual reality and our perceptions depend most of the time only on visual and audio inputs, I couldn’t feel the faint breeze or hear anything (if the game didn’t want me to) when someone’s getting closer, it really got my hair raised when I turned around and “ran” into someone. I think vr has a lot of potentials in the horror industry.

One of the most novel innovations was the usage of vr in court, which I read about in news of the week (http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1001846/vr-technology-called-to-the-stand-in-beijing-court). Vr technology allegedly helps to “present evidence in a clearer, more visual way” than traditional media such as powepoint slides. On one hand I am astonished and confident about the help vr could bring to the courtroom, but on the other hand I am also worried that vr might be a more powerful tool to mislead and manipulate the court.

Another interesting moment I had in vr was when playing long echo and for the first time I looked down and saw my “body” in a vr game. I was used to “overlooking” the presence of my body and only seeing parts I had a need for, most of the time hands. It felt a little odd to see myself in a spacesuit with the whole body and yet didn’t have any control over it. I wonder when vr becomes more prevalent, will it change our perceptions of our selves?